Spain, Galicia: Ribeiro Renaissance?

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Spain, Galicia: Ribeiro Renaissance?

LUIS GUTIÉRREZ 28th Feb 2019 | The Wine Advocate (/articles/the-wine-advocate) | Issue 241 End of February 2019 (/articles/the-wine-advocate?issue=JDBdhErb5Dmie8eWW)

Vintage Wines RP Contrary to what I’ve said about the Bierzo appellation, the governing bodies of the appellations of origin from Galicia seem to still be living in the past, and quality 2016 Rafael Palacios 98 Sorte O Soro producers find it increasingly more difficult to continue working with them. Quality producers are slowly dropping out, mostly in Ribeira Sacra, where two of their top 2017 Raúl Pérez El 96+ producers have now joined the list of people working outside the appellation of Pecado origin: none other than Fedellos do Couto and Envínate. 2017 Guímaro Finca 96+ Capeliños Rant Mode On 2016 Quinta da 96+ Fedellos do Couto and Envínate will both release their wines certified by an Muradella external entity in order to have more freedom about the work in their vineyards Fisterra and winery, as well as to avoid problems of their wines being rejected by the 2016 Envínate 96 appellation’s tasting panel. It might feel like the appellations only benefit Lousas Parcela Camiño Novo standardization of wines and production of volume rather than quality. I see it here and in many other places: The best producers have recurring problems as their wines get denied approval because they are not like the others. View All Wines (/search/wines? assignment=veqMrQCstx2xwzos7) These latest two defectors join the ranks of Daterra (Laura Lorenzo), Sílice and Raúl Pérez, all very relevant names releasing wines from the region but without the Ribeira Sacra denomination on their labels. Doesn’t the appellation see that they are losing the great publicity that these people would bring if their very successful wines carried the Ribeira Sacra label? The examples of Daterra and Sílice, who didn’t even bother trying and simply started without the appellation of origin for their wines from day one, seem to also be followed by other young new producers who are not ready to put up with all this nonsense. This is happening in Ribeira Sacra (the new scion from Fedellos do Couto), Ribeiro and elsewhere. I mention Ribeiro because this is where I’ve seen more new stuff this time and projects often (https://a-matter-of- eschewing the appellation’s back labels right from the beginning. taste.com)

Many others have individual wines taken outside their DOs, as they know the wines would be refused and declared faulty or lacking typicity, while part of their portfolio remains with the appellation’s seal. I see this quite often in Rías Baixas. Other than that, the internal problems (there could be a soap opera based on the intricacies inside the Denominación de Origen Ribeiro) and the close link with politics, which seems to be stronger in Galicia than in the rest of Spain, paint a dismal portrait of our AOC system. Many of us think it should be championing the production of great wines and helping entrepreneurs who are putting their heart, time and money into producing quality wines that would carry the names of the regions across the globe.

This is the sad picture that I have to paint over and over again about most of the appellations of origin in Spain. I’m going to try not to write too much about this anymore and instead focus on the positive things happening throughout the country, which are many. This continuous ranting gets really boring, both for you and for me. I think you already have a good idea of what’s happening with the appellations of origin in Spain: Things are not going well!

But despite all that, life goes on, and there is no stopping for a movement that champions regional wines from organically farmed vineyards, produced in a respectful way with indigenous varieties that express the character of the place, grape and vintage. I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll say it again: yes, the places have the potential, but there’s a need for someone to understand, help realize that potential and carry it all the way into the bottle. In this pyramid that is quality wine, there aren’t that many top producers, and in many regions, they can be counted on the fingers of one hand. So when I found TWO new ones in Ribeiro, I was REALLY excited!

Is Ribeiro Finally Taking Off? I wrote in my very first article about Galicia in late 2013 (https://www.robertparker.com/articles/9h4sKNqaTezna2MuW), “I believe in the high potential of Ribeiro, which was historically Spain's first internationally renowned wine region. But the appellation has not yet really fully recovered from the disasters of the 19th century—oidium, then mildew, then phylloxera. And it's about time.” So, has this time come now?

The classical growers there, Luis Anxo Rodríguez and Emilio Rojo, were joined by more recent projects like El Paraguas Atlántico, but it was all quite slow and still dominated by the big cooperative. Viña Mein, one of the pioneers in the Avia Valley together with Vilerma and later José Luis Cuerda with his San Clodio, hired Daniel Gómez Jiménez-Landi and Fernando García from Comando G in Gredos as external advisors, and the wines made a complete U-turn. Why? The vineyards are now organically and biodynamically farmed, yields have been lowered and each vineyard is fermented separately. Some vines have been regrafted to traditional varieties, getting rid of Garnacha Tintorera, Palomino and other foreign grapes and lowering the amount of Godello, which they feel doesn't do well with in their warm-ish climate. They are also adding some old vineyards to reinforce some of their cuvées. The picture makes it feel like a brand new project, with different wines, labels and almost everything.

This is what the Ribeiro vineyards used to look like. Now most of the old vineyards like this have disappeared, and there are only small plots here and there. This is in the classical zone of Leiro on the banks of the Avia River.

Add to that other names like Bernardo Estévez, whose excellent wines I unfortunately couldn’t taste this time, Coto de Gomariz, Manuel Formigo, Viñedos do Gabian, José Estévez and Sameirás, and the picture doesn’t look too bad. It’s certainly much better than five years ago when I first reported on it. There are even a couple of new international projects, one from Matías Michelini from Argentina and the second from the Durigutti brothers, also from Argentina, with Italian winemaker Atilio Pagli. So the region is for sure catching the attention of many, and it feels like it’s definitely going to take off!

Furthermore, it’s the only appellation of origin in Spain that has a separate category for small growers who make wine from their own vineyards: the colleiteiro. If in previous years I saw how new names made Ribeira Sacra live up to its reputation, I think now is the turning point for Ribeiro… Because on top of all this, this time I discovered two brand new names to add to the list of producers to follow: Augalevada and Cume do Avia.

I have to admit, it’s been a long time since I’ve found an impressive collection of wines from a new producer such as these from Augalevada in Ribeiro (but sold without appellation). A name to watch. I would say that Augalevada, whose full name is Fazenda Agrícola Augalevada, is one of the most interesting new projects in Ribeiro, Galicia and the whole of Spain. It's the brainchild of Iago Garrido Pascual, who settled in the village of Rioboó, on the banks of the Avia River, where he planted 2.9 hectares of vines in 2009. He works with used oak and clay vessels and produces wines of strong personality (some with a “natural” style) sold without the appellation of origin. He's also working with grapes from Rías Baixas and Ribeira Sacra to learn about those regions and their varieties. In general, he experiments quite a lot—some of the wines are better than others, and some experiences are more successful than others. I tend to like the whites better than the reds in his style. He's already regrafting some Treixadura to red varieties or other white grapes, as he feels he planted too much and needs more diversity. He produced only 8,500 bottles in 2017.

Cume do Avia is also a very young project, as they planted their nine hectares of vineyards in 2008 and did their first vinification in 2013. In 2016, they produced their first vintage without any external help and 100% with their own grapes. It's a small family project owned and run by Álvaro and Diego Diéguez Collarte and Adolfo and Anxo Collarte Pérez in the Santo André (Eira dos Moros) zone. They planted 14 local grape varieties that they farm organically (certified from the beginning) along with some biodynamic practices. They have a wide portfolio of wines, and this is the first time that I tasted all they could provide, in order to understand their wines and what they are trying to do. They currently produce 15,000 to 20,000 bottles per year and hope to reach the 35,000 to 40,000 maximum in some five years. But in 2016 they lost most of their crop to mildew, in 2017 they suffered frost and got small yields of good quality and 2018 suffered the consequences of the previous two years, was challenging and also prone to mildew and black rot.

Cume do Avia is another new name to follow in Ribeiro. They have a wide portfolio and bottle varietal reds, which give a unique opportunity to get to know and assess these grapes.

It is also really interesting to be able to taste so many red varieties separately, as they did separate bottlings of Brancellao, Caíño Longo, Sousón and Ferrón. Although you don't see these grapes in isolation that often, I think it’s worth diving into them to get a little more detail. I’ve put them in order of increasing color and power, with Brancellao being the palest and most ethereal, the grape responsible for lighter and more perfumed wines. Caíño Longo is also a perfumed grape that has a peppery style.

Sousón is often defined as having a lot of everything—color, acidity and power—and can sometimes be a little rustic. The wines tend to be dark and powerful. The grapes don’t really have colored pulp, but the skins are so rich in all sorts of compounds that they taint the pulp a pale pink. Finally, Ferrón, which is a bit of a specialty from the Arnoia Valley, where it’s also known as Ferrol, is so rare that it’s almost unknown. I think Cume do Avia’s is the first varietal bottling I’ve ever tasted. The wine was really dark and extremely rustic, with tons of tannins and off-the-chart acidity. I’m not surprised it’s a grape used in small percentages in blends rather than to produce varietal wines.

Four Hours with Emilio Completing my visits to some of the classical producers, I had a very relaxed visit with Emilio Rojo. I met with him in a bar in the village of Leiro, and we walked up to his 1.2-hectare vineyard along an incredible path with stone walls covered in moss and abandoned old houses. It took us a good two hours to walk up, around the vineyard and down again, while we talked about common friends, great food, great wines and great restaurants, viticulture, Galicia, Ribeiro, Spain, the world and everything in between, including the continuity of his project as he’s already semi- retired. In case you were wondering, he doesn’t know yet…

The idiosyncratic Emilio Rojo doesn’t really like to look at the camera

We later drove to his tiny winery in the village of Arnoia, where he was born. Unfortunately, he doesn't keep any bottled wine. "In a good year, I produce 5,000 liters, and I don't have enough for all the orders from my customers," he explained. “Even if I try to keep a few bottles for myself, there's always something, people turn up or whatever, my sister takes one six-pack for Christmas, and I always end up with no wine.” So, we only tasted unbottled wine from 2016 as he had saved a small lot to bottle in magnum, 2017 and 2018.

I feel that his wines have improved in the last few years and that there’s more regularity now. The wines tend to develop nicely in bottle, but unfortunately, demand surpasses supply and the wines are very difficult to find. I told him I had known his wines since the time when his sales policy was, in his own words, “My bottles should sell for 1,000 pesetas (six euros!) each. Those were the good old days!” he said.

Rías Baixas Let’s move to Rías Baixas, where I had a great day tasting the 2016s and 2017s from the producers I admire the most there: Albamar, Forjas del Salnés, Fulcro, Nanclares and Zárate, plus their branch-offs. I re-read my previous article on Galicia from August 2017 (https://www.robertparker.com/articles/26ok7wC7u7ExnhHJm), and there is an overwhelming amount of information in it, including lots of stuff about some of these Rías Baixas guys. So, you might want to go back to it for some more background information. These five produce more and more different wines each year, and their portfolios are growing a bit crazy. Having to taste two vintages took me a long time, but was quite fascinating. Rías Baixas producers, from left to right: Alberto Nanclares, Silvia Prieto (Nanclares & Prieto), Rodrigo “Rodri” Méndez (Forjas del Salnés), Eulogio Pomares (Zárate), Manuel Moldes (Fulcro) and Xurxo Alba (Albamar)

There are new labels from virtually all of them, even in other appellations; for example, Nanclares has a joint venture with Cume do Avia in Ribeiro. I’ll try to go through the most relevant ones. Eulogio Pomares is growing in his solo project outside the family winery Zárate. He showed me a really impressive red from one of the grapes from the zone, an Espadeiro, a variety that according to Pomares, “was used to produce summer wines, it was the red people drank here.” But it seems like the 80-year-old vineyard he found and used for the 2017 Castiñeiro Espadeiro must have been a different selection of grapes with even less color and more ethereal, perfumed and mineral wines. I want to see the following vintages and keep track of how this ages in bottle.

This red Espadeiro from Rías Baixas produced by Eulogio Pomares takes the variety to a whole new level of refinement and elegance

Coincidentally Fulcro also has a new pure Espadeiro from an extremely old vineyard. It was first produced in 2017 and will be bottled as Finca Fabaiños, which has a somewhat similar profile to the one from Pomares. Even though the zone is mostly granite, Fulcro is also bottling Albariño by soil—they have a wine from granite, another from schist, sand will come soon and they are still looking for a good vineyard with clay soils. Like Pomares, the personal project by Rodrigo Méndez from Forjas del Salnés is also growing, with some really young Albariños coming from new plantings, which is very important for the future. He is also exploring an old, forgotten coastal zone, a new IGP called Ribeiras do Morrazo that’s in the peninsula of that name around the town of Bueu, in conjunction with sommelier Antonio Portela—look up his small project Videiras no Mar. They work with Albariño and the local strain of Caíño locally known as Tinta Femia. The wines from this place are sharp, low in alcohol, high in acidity and have a clear saline taste in the finish, really wines from the sea.

Adrián Guerra from the Bagos wine bar in Pontevedra, one of my favorite wine bars in Galicia, is involved in the production of some wines, like the superb Albariño Sesenta e Nove Arrobas from Albamar (buy any vintage you can find!). Now that I mention him, Albamar’s Xurxo Alba Padín is an explosion of energy and doesn't stop experimenting. He showed me a great unsulfured Albariño, a white from red Caíño grapes (Albino!) and a new red Caíño. Going back to Guerra, he is now also part of a new joint venture with Nanclares and the owner of an Albariño vineyard in Sanxenxo that resulted in an impressive 2016 A Graña that was matured in a new chestnut barrel with its lees like in the old times. The collection of Albariños from Nanclares is impressive, and all the wines show different personalities; it’s not easy, as there are nine of them!!

2016 or 2017? What a Dilemma! The Rías Baixas tasting was also a great opportunity to compare the two years and get first-hand information from each of them about how they remembered those harvests. I often tell you I find it difficult to generalize, but what happened that day was amazing! The understanding and the memory each of these five producers, which I put at the top of the quality hierarchy of the region, was completely different! And it’s not that they work far away from each other (they are all in the Salnés area, the heart of the appellation) or work with very different terroirs (it’s mostly granite with a little slate here and there) or even different varieties (Albariño for whites and a little red), varying altitudes or anything different, or that the years we where talking about were a very distant memory in the past and they had forgotten about them!

These are my favorite Albariño bottlings from Rías Baixas

In fact, their understanding was different according to how their wines behaved, and what they each explained about the year made sense when I tasted their wines, but maybe not when tasting the others. Some preferred 2016, and others favored 2017. Even within the same winery, some wines were better in 2016, and I preferred the 2017s of others. Some said 2016 was warm, and others considered it a cold vintage. So even within that small, uniform sample, it’s impossible to generalize, which is why I always say that you have to read about each individual producer and each different wine. The macro view doesn’t work, you need the micro details, and that’s why I build the hierarchy with the scores.

Having said that, I need to give you some brief and very rough generalizations about 2016, 2017 and 2018. 2016 was clearly a challenging year with some risk in the vineyard that made people sweat. Furthermore, there was some rain during harvest (doesn’t it rain every harvest in Rías Baixas?), and that seems to have created two different years depending when you harvested: before the rain, when the grapes might have been a little green and acidity was high, or if you waited and ran the risk of too ripe grapes, so the acidity levels might have gone down. I saw cases of both.

Galicia: pulpo a feira and tortilla de patata

2017 was a much more homogeneous, healthier year, quite warm and dry that resulted in a super early harvest (for many, their earliest ever). Close to the sea, as in Rías Baixas, there were no problems with frost (or hail), which was unfortunately not the case in the inland appellations, where they suffered a lot more. I wouldn’t be able to tell you if they suffered most in Monterrei, Ribeiro or Ribeira Sacra, and some will tell you they had a catastrophic year in Valdeorras. Surprisingly enough, the wines from Rías Baixas do not show any heat, and the early harvest might have helped to preserve acidity. There are some great wines, somewhat reminiscent of the 2015s. In Ribeiro, the sloped vineyards planted at a higher altitude, the only ones that existed in the past, escaped the frost and survived the maladies, while the ones on the valley floor were devastated. Some people still think you can plant anywhere? And that in the past they planted randomly? C’mon! Luckily enough, 2018 looks like an extremely promising year, and while I only sampled a handful of bottled wines and some unbottled samples, they showed an uncommon combination of concentration and freshness that is very much to look forward to. People were generally very happy about their 2018s.

Envínate in Ribeira Sacra I finally paid a visit to Envínate’s vineyards in Ribeira Sacra, as in the past I had focused on their vineyards in Tenerife in the Canary Islands. When I asked them if they had any news, Roberto Santana said. “We’re leaving the appellation of origin!” Alfonso Torrente, the one from the team of four that is from that region, was more concerned. “We’re leaving because we have no other option. We’d like to carry the name of the region on our wines, but we couldn’t release them for Christmas as they were rejected by the appellation of origin. We had to order brand new labels for them, and we missed the Christmas sales…” For them, it might not be such a tragedy: As the international market is thirsty for their wines, they have no problem selling them with or without appellation, on time for Christmas or later. But others might not be so lucky…

As they have no family vineyards or tradition making wines, they had to start from zero. They started buying grapes and renting vineyards, and they are slowly purchasing small plots as they become available. They now work seven hectares of organically farmed vines, having recently managed to buy 1.5 hectares, and they have three hectares of rented ones with a purchase option. All the rest are simply rented plots, always small parcels of old vines planted with mixed varieties. Sixty percent of their grapes come from the Ribera del Sil, 30% from Amandi/Doade and the rest from Rosende and Navin. They also have a small winery in the village of A Pedra do Sol in the parish of A Teixeira.

The stunning banks of the Sil River in Ribeira Sacra

They produced 23,000 bottles in 2016 and 25,000 in 2017, their aim being to eventually reach a cruise level of 30,000 to 35,000 bottles per year. But in the last few years Ribeira Sacra has suffered hail and frosts—in Doade 2016, in Rosende and Aveleda in 2017, and in Amandi and Riberas del Sil in 2018, with problems of mildew and black rot—so they lost a lot of grapes. Not an easy region.

Without leaving the zone, Fedellos do Couto, whom I should visit next time as their wines are among my favorites in Ribeira Sacra, have a new scion, Peixes. The full official name is Viños do Macizo Ourensán, and it’s a new project from two of the three members of Fedellos do Couto, Curro Bareño and Jesús Olivares.

They work in the village of Viana do Bolo, somewhere between Valdeorras and Ribeira Sacra in a mountainous region with a cool climate and granite and schist soils in the Bibei Valley. They arrived there in search for more vineyards for their Lomba dos Ares cuvée of Fedellos and found a different character that they deemed worthy of a separate project. They work six hectares of vineyards planted at 650 to 825 meters in altitude with local grape varieties—Mencía, Bastardo, Garnacha Tintorera, Negreda, Grao Negro, Caíño, Aramón, Godello, Dona Branca, Colgadeira, Treixadura, Palomino, Caíño Blanco and Moscatel de Grão Miúdo. 2016 is their first vintage, and the 2017s had just been bottled. The vineyards fall outside all appellations of origin, so the decision in this case was a no-brainer.

Home Alone Quinta da Muradella remains very much alone on the quality podium of Monterrei, but I have a new name to investigate next time, as I didn’t have time during this round. Being alone is not easy, but José Luis Mateo is not a person that gives up easily. He relentlessly looks for ways to improve his wines and is never happy with them and, in fact, keeps too low a profile, so often his wines are underestimated or fly below the radar, as people don’t talk about them. I see them improving year after year, and it’s impressive how they age in bottle. I’m not the only one with a deep respect for Mateo. His colleagues feel very much the same.

José Luis Mateo from Quinta da Muradella in Monterrei is perhaps the most respected vigneron among his peers (Photo by: Estanis Nuñez)

Monterrei is possibly the warmest appellation in Galicia, yet Muradella’s whites, especially from cooler (or let’s say, less warm) years, have a sharp, austere and mineral profile many would associate with cool-climate regions. José Luis Mateo has made a custom bottling for the Matador magazine, a blend of ancient varieties that might put him a bit more in the spotlight. As is the case for all the Matador wines, the bottle is dressed with a piece of art, and this time it’s from painter Fernando Arroyo, who sadly died weeks before the wine was presented to the public. Arroyo, the first ever (non-sparkling or fortified) white from Matador was produced by José Luis Mateo from Quinta da Muradella in Monterrei

The Godello Rush Valdeorras has been the objective of many wineries from other regions who want to produce a white with Godello grapes. Many, mainly from Ribera del Duero or Rioja, have already settled there and started buying vineyards, like Pago de los Capellanes, which has added two brands to their portfolio, while others have acquired full working wineries, including brands and all, like CVNE with Virgen del Galir. I’ve heard all sorts of rumors and names that were interested in Valdeorras, and I’m sure some true and some not. But it’s a small appellation, with around 1,200 hectares, and it’s not suitable for the volumes many were hoping. Basically, there are not enough vineyards for everyone. All this has sent the price of land and grapes through the roof and created a big distortion in the internal balance of the region.

But what I didn’t expect is the effect this would have on neighboring Bierzo, where many turned their gaze when they realized Valdeorras was not suitable. Mauro was probably the first to make their white with Godello from Bierzo. But as they do not seek the appellation of origin and instead sell it as VdT Castilla-León, the same as their reds from their Duero winery, they do not really specify origin. The first winery to land big time in Bierzo was Emilio Moro, with the idea of producing a large volume of Godello from there. “All this has created absolute craziness in the price of Godello. People are getting a lot more money for one kilo of young-vine Godello than for one kilo of very old Mencía,” I was told when visiting Bierzo one week after I toured Galicia.

Be it in Bierzo or in Galicia, I fear a banalization of Godello, as has happened with Verdejo from Rueda. There is a lot of Verdejo from La Mancha and elsewhere that is what many now get when they order ¡un Verdejo! I hope Godello doesn’t end up being another cheap, mainstream grape. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen—it’s bad enough if the appellations suffer, let’s not also kill the grapes! Moody morning on the way up to Emilio Rojo’s vineyard in Ribeiro

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